TIME TO PUT A CAP ON DISPENSARIES

California's cities can't afford to wait for the state to fix the
medical marijuana mess. The plan in the works in Sacramento is a
reasonable local solution to a no-win situation.

The proposal outlined last week at a City Hall hearing would cap the
number of marijuana dispensaries at 12; keep them away from schools,
parks and neighborhoods; and charge fees to cover the cost of regulation.

Sacramento and other cities find themselves in this predicament
because the compassion that voters showed in 1996 by approving the
medical use of marijuana has been completely corrupted.

First, the Legislature allowed a very generous interpretation to
Proposition 215. Then in February 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder
announced that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration would no
longer raid dispensaries in states where medical marijuana is legal.
For good measure in January, the California Supreme Court wiped out
state limits on how much pot medical marijuana patients can grow or possess.

Through all the fog, it is increasingly clear that the system is
unworkable. It has been exploited by growers, unscrupulous physicians
and sellers looking to make a buck, and by people with no plausible
medical need looking to get high. With so much cash to be had,
dispensaries have been popping up in some cities far beyond the needs
of legitimate patients seeking medication.

There are moves afoot to legalize marijuana entirely, or to tax
dispensaries statewide, but there's no consensus either in the public
or among politicians on what to do.

Left in the lurch, California cities are seeking the right balance --
enough dispensaries so that those who truly need marijuana to ease
their pain have access, but not so many that they are out of control.
There's no exact science to how many dispensaries a city needs, but a
dozen in Sacramento -- one for every 35,000 to 40,000 residents -- is
in the ballpark with other cities with regulations.

Now, there are 39 dispensaries registered with the city, but there
are likely others, many of them often fly-by-night operations that
move from one storefront to the next. In choosing the legal
dispensaries, the city could weed out the ones with the most
complaints from neighbors or ones that have come to the attention of
law enforcement.

Dispensaries and some patient advocates complained at the hearing
Thursday that the proposal is too restrictive, but any limit would be
reconsidered after a year, so could be adjusted if experience shows
that necessary.

The plan calls for fees -- there are none now -- for applications,
permits and annual renewals. The amounts have not been determined,
but would be set high enough to cover the cost of regulating the
dispensaries. Friday, Los Angeles officials recommended fees totaling
about $1,200 for an existing dispensary. The fees are closer to
$13,000 in San Francisco. Sacramento's proposal does not include a
tax like that in Oakland, where voters last year approved a
first-in-the- nation levy under which the four dispensaries pay the
city $18 for every $1,000 in sales.

Sacramento's moratorium on new dispensaries and expansions expires
July 13, but could be extended as long as another year. It would be
better for the City Council to act before then to bring some common
sense to the chaos.